Northwest Indiana hasn’t had a perfect road to crop development this year but when harvest begins at full throttle, maybe a week to ten days from now, yields will be better than conventional wisdom thought earlier in the summer.
“It’s fair to say I think that folks, depending on where they’re located, results can kind of be all over the board, but I think most folks are going to experience an above average kind of a harvest this year,” said Kirby Bacon, a technical agronomist with DEKALB-Asgrow. “I think things by and large look pretty good.”
He told HAT the early yields reported have been promising, although very little harvesting is underway. He said there are enough issues with this crop of soybeans and corn that timing for combines in fields will be critical.
“No question about it. We did have conditions that were conducive to a lot of pathogen outbreak, so things like root rots or stalk rots in corn, and some of those have transitioned into some grain rot or ear rot challenges in corn. So that’s my biggest concern today. I think yields are going to be good. They’re going to be pretty solid for most folks, but I think grain quality might be an issue in quite a few of these fields along with that later season stalk quality.”
He recommends you be sure and prioritize fields by scouting them and looking for lodging and stand-ability challenges.
“If things are in great shape then you can plan for that. If by chance you find that you’ve got some challenging stalk quality issues developing out there, then it allows you time to prioritize those fields where maybe you have more challenging issues than others.”
But overall, Bacon is confident yields will actually go above average in the northwest part of Indiana this year.